In June of 2011, President Obama’s approval ratings were edging closer to his negatives, and the aftershocks of his party being drubbed in the 2010 Congressional election was still ringing in his ears.

He was asked by NBC News why the policies enacted during his first two years - with solid Democratic majorities and with his promises of economic recovery - were failing to bring about more hiring. His answer exposed his fundamental misunderstanding of the economy.

"There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers,” said the President. “You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don't go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate."

On the most basic level, this is nonsense. Mechanization is is at the heart of - and is as old as - capitalism itself. It has been a “structural issue” for more than 300 years. If allowed to evolve naturally it leads to increases in productivity and better paying jobs.

Assembly line jobs pay more than picking crops by hand, but the transition to mechanized agriculture meant unemployment for migrant workers picking crops. This was good: The rise of the machines moved workers from farm fields to Ford plants, where they could provide more for themselves and the economy.

But it’s possible to put machines in place before they’re naturally needed. The formula is simple: Pass laws that artificially drive up the price of workers, making the machines more cost-competitive.

One way is to raise the minimum wage, just as the President called for during his State of the Union address. Raise Michigan, a group proposing a state-level initiated law aimed at this goal, announced this week it would begin collecting signatures.

As the farm fields vs. Ford plants comparison makes clear, it’s on the lower end of the wage scale where machines most often gain an early advantage. If you’re of a certain age, you remember it was once commonplace to sit in your car and have people pump your gasoline.

Everyone who hasn’t wanted to exit their warm car this frigid winter recognizes the attraction of this. But it’s not legal to pay workers the extreme entry level wages that this nearly zero-skill job is worth. Instead, we have mechanized gas pumps so simple anyone can learn to use them in seconds.

Restaurant jobs are now in the cross hairs of the minimum wage hikers. Chili’s is already experimenting with automated table-top computers for ordering desserts, drink refills, and paying bills during busy hours. The chain says it isn’t going to use them for ordering main courses and appetizers, but there’s no theoretical impediment to doing so.

Hike the cost of hiring human waitstaff, and hiring more machines means no need for wages, benefits or days off. The remaining workers will likely make more, but the artificially early transition will limit job opportunities for the people a minimum wage hike it is meant to help: Those earning the least.

And it’s easy to see the same trend biting sooner and more forcefully in the fast food sector. Those buttons behind the counter or drive-thru windows can easily be simplified so the customers can push them.

Pairing the President’s machine phobia and his call for a minimum wage hike, it would appear his new economic policy is to give up on America creating high paying jobs, and instead just force the low paying jobs to cost more.

Ken Braun was a legislative aide for a Republican lawmaker in the Michigan House and worked for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has assisted in a start-up effort to encourage employers to provide economic education to employees, and is currently the director of policy for InformationStation.org. His employer is not responsible for what he says here ... or in Spartan Stadium on game days.